As summer draws to a close, I’m sure many of us are eager to pack our luggage, board a plane, and fly somewhere sunny.
However, as we all know, there is one thing that cannot be avoided when traveling: the mayhem of the airport.
While certain things cannot be planned for, there are methods to make the baggage check-in procedure less stressful. A wa::rning has been issued to anybody who uses luggage tags when traveling.
So, we already know about why you should never tie a ribbon around your bag and exactly what colour suitcases are best to avoid, but why on earth should we be so careful with luggage tags?
While baggage tags are useful for making our goods simpler to recognize on a crowded conveyor belt, there are several risks that you should be aware of.
It’s always a hassle when an airline loses your luggage, but I guarantee you it’s far worse when you’re left with no luggage and a compromised security risk.
Mike Harvey, Managing Director of 1st Move International, emphasizes that it is absolutely ‘crucial’ to find a healthy balance between disclosing critical contact information and maintaining your personal protection.
When putting a tag on your luggage, you should include:
- Full name: Write your complete name as it appears on your passport. This helps airline employees locate and safely return your things if they go missing.
- Phone number: Provide a phone number with the country code for easy communication.
- Include an email address for future communication, particularly for overseas travels. Consider utilizing a different travel email account to distinguish it from your personal one.
Additionally, the expert recommends that you avoid:
- Home address: To protect your privacy and security, avoid entering your entire home address.
- Details of valuables: To avoid drawing unwanted attention, do not specify any costly goods within your bag.
- Trip plans and destinations: Keep your trip itinerary and destination information secret to prevent unauthorized usage.
- Sensitive information: To safeguard your personal identify, avoid adding personal identification numbers such national insurance or passport numbers. This includes omitting specifics such as travel insurance policy numbers.
So, if you’ve got your address, vacation plans, and any other important information written on that small piece of paper, get rid of it and get yourself a new and improved one that won’t make your luggage a rolling security risk
